Football season two months away for Tift County
Jun. 7—TIFTON — With the first of the Georgia High School Association's "dead weeks" out of the way, Tift County football returned to action this week.
Head coach Noel Dean posted on social media that he was excited for the weeks ahead for what Tift County Football's account dubbed as the first chapter of the "'23 Summer College Tour."
Tift players were to be in Orlando, Fla. June 7 for a 7-on-7 camp at Central Florida. More will follow in June in July, at Georgia Tech, at Troy University and at the Hustle Up National Tournament in Birmingham, Ala.
Besides playing football, the Devils have been turning scouts' heads. A steady stream of scholarship offers have come their way recently, including from a variety of Division I opponents. Tift's Twitter account has re-tweeted players' reported offers from Southern Illinois, Florida A&M, Morgan State and Alcorn. In-state schools such as Reinhardt and Shorter have offered as well.
Barely two months await the start of the regular season.
Tift is to scrimmage Lowndes on Aug. 11. The two played both a spring and summer scrimmage in 2022. Crisp County was the spring opponent last month, which saw them blast the Cougars, 24-14, in the three varsity quarters.
Damion Moate scored twice for Tift, though Danny Freeman had the first touchdown with an interception return. Titus Beauford provided early momentum by snagging a deep ball from Christopher Martin.
Moate had the most touchdowns of any returning Blue Devil, scoring six last year. Beauford had two touchdown receptions for the team in 2022. Originally, the scrimmage was to be Aug. 4, but was moved to the 11th a month ago.
The Blue Devils will open at Coffee on Aug. 18. The home opener comes a week later, Aug. 25 with Dutchtown. The Dutchtown contest has also been announced as Senior Night.
Five consecutive games will be on the friendly soil of Brodie Field. Following Dutchtown, Colquitt County pays a visit on Sept. 1, then Thomasville on Sept. 15 and Gadsden County, Fla., on Sept. 22.
Homecoming is the Gadsden contest, which was Tift's favorite game of a year ago. The Packers and Tift have played annually since 1966, the longest streak for any Blue Devils opponent this year.
The fifth straight home game, on Sept. 29, opens the Region 1-6A slate. Northside of Warner Robins will be in Tifton for the first time since 2009. The two have been sporadic opponents over the years and Tift will seek its first win over the Eagles since a state playoff game in 1997.
Northside will be the Red, White and Blue Devils game.
Once region starts, the rest of the games will count towards the state tournament. Tift goes to Thomas County Central on Oct. 6. After a second off week, they will play Veterans at Freedom Field, a facility they share with Houston County High. Tift took Veterans to the wire in a 27-20 loss, one of their closest games.
Speaking of Houston, the Bears come to Brodie Field Oct. 27, their first game here since a freshman Jake Fromm saw the Blue run up a 47-21 score. The regular season will end at Lee County on Nov. 3. Tift has not played at Lee since 2015.
Eight of Tift's opponents were state playoff teams in 2022
Colquitt and Dutchtown reached the semifinals in 7A. Coffee, Houston, TCC and Thomasville were quarterfinalists, with Lee, Northside making the second round.
A program milestone is on the horizon for the Blue Devils. Since adopting the Tift County name in 1962, they have notched 346 victories. Combined with Tifton High School, which began play in 1914, they sit at 588 wins.
